Thursday, October 16, 2008

Flying Girl and Things To Do, or Possibilities

Flying Girl and Things To Do, or Possibilities, 10/15/08
Golden Fluid Acrylics

What does a breakthrough feel like when you are in the middle of it?

Something like this.

Well, maybe not like this painting. She seems very together and ordered and focused. Her no-nonsense camel-colored dress, her jaunty hat, her stompin' boots. Still not sure if that thing in her hand is a book or a purse. Whatever it is, it's carrying her plans and ideas. And the brushes in her other ideas are there for her to paint the new ones as they come.

Me, I feel a little confused, a little overwhelmed, a little unsure as to how all my plans will get done. Never quite sure which opportunities are the best to chase. And tired, too. I've been going non stop, until I end up sinking into laziness, then feeling guilty about it.

Maybe I painted this FG to help focus my own intentions. A kind of meditation, if you will.

As an interesting note on process, in the sketch, the clouds started out as flowers. This was supposed to be the enchanted forest, with tiny houses below the blossoms. I saw it in pastels, but when the sketch was complete, I was unsatisfied with the flowers... they were too trite, and being very late, it was too dark and exhausting to go out into the wilds (or city streets) of Florida to find a live reference. So I went with the clouds. Actually, the clouds in Florida are quite spectacular, and I actually shot a photo recently that looks very close to these clouds. It was after a brief, violent rain storm. Then the rain cleared, and there was this heart stopping cloudscape/sunset.

Maybe this FG is after the violent rain storm (of my life right now) and when it clears, the confusion and tempest will be gone, leaving the clarity and beauty of a sky washed clean. Ojala.

Hand and House, 10/15/08
The Big Draw #15
Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils

My sketch is another hand. What these hands mean is I didn't draw during the day, or I didn't finish, or I didn't like the drawing or I don't want to share it yet because I drew ideas for FGs that are still in the works. So after I paint, I realize that I still have to draw, and all I have there for a model is my hands.

This one was done on the initial sketch for FG Has Things To Do.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

FG looks Mary Poppinish - MP was very organized and together. A study of hands is a perfect series to draw.

sukipoet said...

good subject to draw as your hands have definitely been very busy. Red, does that mean yr hand is sore??

Anonymous said...

You've been amazingly productive. I want to tell you to rest and to tell you to keep going.

Rowena said...

diff, I see Mary Poppins, too.
Suki, it was just the first pencil I picked up.
Mapelba.... seriously, do you know of a way to rest and keep the momentum? Because I think I've hit 30 paintings, a month of... and I'm so tired, but I don't really want to stop, but I do.

Tammie Lee said...

I love your flying girl art, fun series. I could see an entire gallery show of them. I enjoyed reading your process. wow 30 paintings a month! You are a busy lady and I am guessing that is only a wee bit of the business, being a mom and all. Wishing you the best and some renewed energy!

lowenkopf said...

FG frequently sends me messages, which on one hand means I may be psychotic but on the other means that through her adventures I find empathy and resonance.

But speaking of hands, your recent ventures with them are hauntingly evocative; they seem to me to be dramatizing affirmation through self-examination. They remind me of mudras, hands being used to express mantras.

KaiBlue said...

Aloha Rowena,
I like FG, she's in a groove zone all of her own.
I like the hand study and red brings out the detail..
Sketch on!!
PEace, Kai

soulbrush said...

hey i thought of mary poppins immediately too. like reading your words, you are like me, a very deep, deep person...all is not as it seems. you like to go beneath the surface, this overwhelming feeling you describe, is the opposite to me right now, underwhelmed!...thanks for understanding the whole teaching thing and your great comments.i am going to add you to my list of favourites right now!

Anonymous said...

I just lost my post..boo..but what I was saying was that this time FG felt like she was in another perid in history and she should be standing outdoors in a field with flowers..that's what I thought of as I looked at her. I dig her...I seriously do

Keep going this is such amazing work!

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